Dear West Virginia’s U.S. Senators and Representatives,
The residents of the state you represent — and who elected you to represent us on the national stage — kindly ask you to please remove your heads from the elephant’s hind end and support the Build Back Better Plan.
A Global Strategy Group survey found that 48% of West Virginians support the $3.5 trillion plan (as opposed to 47% against). The number in support jumped when respondents were told the package could be paid for by taxes on corporations and the rich: 70% support “clos[ing] the loophole that often allows the wealthy to avoid paying taxes on investment gains for their entire lives”; 60% support “apply[ing] a one-time tax on billionaires’ untaxed investment gains above $1 billion, at the same rate as wages and salaries”; 64% support “apply[ing] a 2% tax on an individual’s wealth above $50 million each year”; and 55% support “rais[ing] the corporate tax rate for large corporations from 21% and set it back to its previous 28%.”
A separate survey, this one conducted by WorkMoney, found 81% of respondents nationwide support the Build Back Better Plan (including 81% of moderates and 66% of conservatives). Eighty percent of the survey’s respondents in West Virginia said that Sen. Joe Manchin should vote in favor of the package. That includes 77% of West Virginia respondents who identify as conservative. (We’re looking at you, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and Rep. David McKinley.)
West Virginians are begging you to put partisanship and politicking aside and think about the people you represent.
Tina and Eric Holcomb, of Pratt, went on the record with The Dominion Post, advocating for the full additional funding for Home and Community Based Services proposed in the Build Back Better Plan. A disability waiver funded by HCBS allows the couple to get child care for their son with Sanfilippo Syndrome; without it, Eric would have to quit his job to provide care instead. Ashley and Chris Orndorff, of Charleston, also went on the record, because there’s such an extreme shortage of home care workers that they can’t find anyone to do respite care for their daughter with Down syndrome.
Elizabeth Masters, of Parkersburg, and Amy Shafer, of Elkview, both went on the record with The Guardian, asking Manchin to support the extended Child Tax Credit — a crucial piece of the reconciliation package that Manchin opposes. Financial hardship hit both mothers recently, and the money from the CTC has allowed each to keep their houses.
Our letters to the editor have been filled with West Virginia voters who support one or more facets of the $3.5 trillion package, wondering why their representatives aren’t representing them.
And Joseph A. Scalise, of Terra Alta, who voted for Trump twice, probably said it best when he told The Guardian: “What do they understand about people like ourselves who are trying to keep their heads above water? It’s time for them to stop having these little wars among each other and start thinking about the American people again.”
Because let’s be honest: If any one of the proposed measures in the Build Back Better plan came up as an individual bill, out of the public spotlight, then Manchin would probably support it and Capito and McKinley might, as well. But the fact that all these widely supported services and expenditures are being wrapped up into one package that happens to bear the president’s slogan and has garnered so much media and public attention is why you’re all peacocking — preening and strutting for the GOP’s party base and the campaign donors. (That includes you, Sen. Manchin.)
Who do you represent again? That minority 20% to 47% of West Virginians who oppose the Build Back Better Plan? Or the majority 48% to 80% who support it?
